Are You Willing to Fight in Ukraine?

Most of us aren't willing to give up our creature comforts to combat climate change, so why are we so comfortable asking Ukrainians to die for a good night's sleep?

Courtesy of Bloomberg

This image shows the city of Avdiivka. Less than 1,000 residents remain in the ruins of the town seen above. In 2022, 40,000 residents celebrated the New Year in this rural city-like town. Tables were filled with the famous salad “Oliv’e” and probably an assortment of dishes with salted and lightly pickled herring. Now, those tables are in ashes, and their owners are long gone.

Meet Avdiivka before the war. This was the town none of us had ever heard of before late 2023, and none of us dared consider ourselves gods over in the way we do many other unmemorable villages like it. It will take years, even decades to rebuild this small, almost-nothing of a town on the edge of nowhere. There is a chance, however, that it will never be rebuilt. For the sake of the former residents, let’s hope it does get rebuilt. And for the sake of humanity, let’s hope those who destroyed it suffer. 

Courtesy of Wikipedia 

A Follow Up 

I am writing this article as a follow-up to one I wrote the other day in which I channeled the wisdom and humanity of Walter Cronkite, one of the most well-known and respected faces in journalism from the last century. As he did, I, too, offered a similar prediction for the outcome of a war that becomes seemingly less winnable with each passing month. The war in Ukraine is unwinnable.

That article, of course, attracted a company (military term) of La-Z-Boy warriors. These are the folks, and many of them quite smart, whose hatred for all things Putin and Russia has turned them into anti-Russian extremists. Every cell in my body agrees with them as far as Russia is concerned. Because I feel the war in Ukraine is unwinnable has not suddenly made me a pro-Kremlin shithead, but their emotions blind them to reason. 

Feeling somewhat helpless to correct Russia’s moral wrongs themselves, these morality warriors want their proxies, the Ukrainians, to carry on the fight for them with the same white-hot passion burning inside of them — a passion that always cools just before they pull up to the drive-thru and place their orders: “Two egg McMuffins and a large coffee with milk.” 

Pulling the car off to the side, they keep it idling so the AC can cool them — it’s getting hot out there, not a good day to be outside. Scrolling through Medium, they come across my article where I lay out why the war has to end and how it will be almost impossible for a much smaller Ukraine and a less-than-fully-devoted-to-the-cause West to defeat Russia. Russia likely can’t be beaten outright on the battlefield, but it can be beaten in the longer term through isolation.

Belly-happy with delicious McMuffin nourishing them, the caffeine has begun to soothe whatever it is caffeine soothes, and the morning “crankies” turn temporarily into the a.m. coffee-induced overconfidence.

Here is a summary of the comments I got. Many are written in complete sentences and correctly punctuated but lack any rebuttal or rational argument as to why my suggestion that the war is unwinnable was wrong. 

“No! You are a moron! Maybe you are ready to give up but we are going to fight and fight we will to the bitter end. Russia must pay. The idea of just handing over land is so WWII — been there and saw the result — and so we will fight! Finland and Sweden. Russia’s economy is weak. They are corrupt. Moron. You, sir, are a coward and a Russian!”

Maybe I am a moron. My mother sometimes looked at me as if to ask, “How did this dumbass come from me?” Then, she would take a sip of her Gallo Burgundy and hug me. Nonetheless, she usually looked at me when I questioned her undying love for Reagan. I was right about Reagan and she was wrong. I am right. Russia and this war and everyone who scoffed — by the way, I love making people scoff — will learn in time that they were wrong. I say this not because I am suddenly back on the Kremlin’s side. I have never been on the Kremlin’s side and know more than most to justify why no one should ever be on the Kremlin’s side of any question. 

I have come to this opinion after many evenings, days, talks, and comments from Ukrainians living in Ukraine and in Europe. Last week, we went to the beach with a woman and her son. Her husband is fighting in Ukraine. She struggled to rejoice over U.S. aid and then started crying because she said, “This means it will keep going on and on.” Her opinion is growing among the Ukrainians whose husbands and sons are fighting. The Republican-terrorized Congress gave Russia a six-month window to do whatever it wanted, and they did — they attacked unrelentingly, and land has been lost. But it’s not the land, it’s the hopelessness that is eating away at their resolve. 

In addition to their growing desperation, the Ukrainian government recently made two decisions that have triggered a reaction among Ukrainians both in Ukraine and abroad—and neither of these two things is related to the U.S. Congress approving funding for Ukraine’s war effort. The first pertains to the lowering of the conscription age. The second is a law Ukraine passed that says no more Ukrainian passports will be issued in embassies or consulates worldwide. Any Ukrainian whose passport expires must return to Ukraine to apply for a new one.

Even as Ukraine works to get much-needed arms from a huge U.S. aid package to the front line, its government is seeking to reverse the drain of its potential soldiers, announcing that men of conscription age will no longer be able to renew passports from outside Ukraine.

The Cabinet of Ministers said late Wednesday that men between 18 and 60 years old deemed fit for military service will only be able to replace their passports inside Ukraine.

Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, mostly to neighboring European countries. The European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, says 4.3 million Ukrainians are living in EU countries, 860,000 of them men 18 years of age or older (Ukraine Is Putting Pressure On).

It’s easy to say that it isn’t fair that these 860,000 potential soldiers have made themselves unavailable to defend their homeland. My feelings are mixed, but my feelings and opinions mean little here. However, this demonstrates that not everyone in Ukraine is as motivated to fight to give their lives for their country as Americans would like them to be. The law passed is a creative way to get them back home, but it also speaks to the desperate search underway in Ukraine for able bodies.

We are two years in, and the war this summer will not be any less intense. What creative laws will be taken next year when the search for bodies starts anew? Russia is three times larger than Ukraine, and given Russia’s complete disregard for the welfare of its soldiers and life in general, that difference in population becomes even more pronounced. Ukrainians want to preserve the lives of their soldier, and Russians think nothing of sending a few hundred each day to their deaths if it means taking off a machine gun nest.

While Ukrainians died in droves, rationing their firepower, we were cheering them on. “You can do it! Beat those bad Russians.” At the same time, we were enjoying our creature comforts and angry over high gas prices. Few of the armchair hawks think about the simple fact that Ukrainian mothers who didn’t worry about their teenage sons having to fight now have to figure out how to hide their teenage sons from the conscription.

While Congress was arguing, Russia was making steady advances in the last six months and has reconstituted its military strength with the help of China, Iran and North Korea. For now, U.S. military support will allow Ukraine to hold the line and quash Russian advances, but it is too late for a Ukrainian offensive or a quick or decisive Ukrainian victory.

The majority of Republicans in the House voted against the bill; many Republicans and supporters of former President Donald Trump say more weapons for Ukraine will only prolong a war that Kyiv cannot win. They argue that it is Europe’s, not the United States’ responsibility to prevent Russia’s takeover of Ukraine. What these critics fail to mention is that without those weapons, Ukraine will most certainly lose to Russia — on the battlefield or in forced negotiations.

Without a credible commitment to ongoing bipartisan support for Kyiv, Moscow wouldn’t be wrong to assume that the U.S. will abandon Ukraine sooner or later, especially if this year’s U.S. presidential election returns Trump to the White House. Regardless of the results in November, a failure by Congress to build on the latest aid package in words and deeds will undermine U.S. leadership and credibility around the world, emboldening our enemies (Too Little, Too Late?).

We cheer them on, and I also want them to take it to the Russians and kill as many of the invaders as possible, but all we are really offering them is just enough to keep our conscience clear. 

The arguments against my declaration that the war is unwinnable are weak. I respect the anger, and I value many of the opinions, but it’s not us who have to fight this endless, hopeless war. One clearly confused commentator brought up French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron is irrelevant to the war effort in Ukraine and, pretty much, in France. He is grabbing at straws to improve his rating in France but is clueless and weak. He is a Trump only without the racism and ignorance. 

Like it or not, Crimea is in Russian hands. Who is really willing to accept nuclear war over Crimea? I’m not. Do you know why? Because I know enough about the situation in Crimea to tell you that probably 70 percent want to be part of Russia and 30 percent part of Ukraine. Given those numbers, regardless of how much I hate the Russians, I am not willing to end life on Earth because Russia acted like an uncivilized pirate. We have ways of punishing Russia, and it does not require nuclear war.

I laid out many good ways to isolate Russia. While Russia’s economy has shocked most experts with its resilience, I wrote an article explaining why Western sanctions would not crash Russia’s economy before the war started. I am just a writer on Medium, and the “experts” making the decisions don’t hear those who know better. Nonetheless, time is Russia’s enemy and our ally. Turn Ukraine into “Fortress Ukraine” and watch Russia wither on the vine. Read the original article if you would like to see some of my suggestions for isolating Russia.

Regarding Russia, I am right more often than I am wrong. I am right here. Sooner or later, my suggestions will be implemented. For the sake of the Ukrainians who Russia’s criminal act has not yet killed, let’s make it sooner.